Product Description

An imaginary European kingdom is the setting for this classic romance. Later re-done as a Grace Kelly vehicle, the original silent version is a lot more interesting, boasting a marvelous performance by Adolphe Menjou as a skirt-chasing prince, and superb cinematography by Alvin Wyckoff, DeMille's ace cameraman.

The splendid setting of this film would've been right up Erich von Stroheim's alley, but he was under contract to M-G-M at the time. Instead, Dimitri Buchowetzki took up the megaphone, and the result is a film with plenty of romance and wit to please American audiences, and just the right continental touch to give it a distinctive style. Nearly forgotten today, Buchowetzki died only a few years after directing this film, and it remains the only one of his works in circulation. If "The Swan" is any indication, he might've become another Lubitsch. We'll never know. Organ score by Bob Vaughn.

Supplemental material: Al St. John stars in the two-reel comedy "Jungle Heat" (1927). It's a slapstick riot with unusual stop-motion animation effects and some incredible sight gags!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102248 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-11-22
• Formats: Silent, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Customer Reviews

A nice little fairytale type of story
This early Paramount production is one of the few samples we have of Russian director Dimitri Buchowetski's work, whose earlier productions include "Othello" with Emil Jannings. Unfortunately, he died not long after directing "The Swan", or else he might have become a leading Hollywood director. Although there is nothing particularly outstanding in his directing of "The Swan", this story is still well presented and enjoyable to watch, not in the least due to Adolphe Menjou's excellent performance as the spoilt playboy prince of a European kingdom. It comes across as a fairytale type of story, set in a fictitious place and with a timeless story about a love that cannot be: the beautiful princess is in love with her fencing tutor, the teacher of Castle Beldonia, but her mother has arranged her marriage to playboy Prince Albert, who has a wandering eye and is only interested in having fun. Despite its fairytale appearance with nice sets of the castle's interiors, there are still some real-life dramas and points which I got out of "The Swan", such as the Queen's attitude that the teacher is not a real man, only other royal blood is, when in fact the teacher proves himself to be a more decent and upstanding man than the spoilt Prince. And due to her upbringing, the Princess sees herself as a swan who has to remain in her pond with other swans, not fly away and mingle with other birds. The picture quality is pretty good for the most part, and the story moves along at a nice, steady pace, leading to a climax which leaves the viewer in suspense about the outcome and the future of the unhappy Princess.

A second short film on this DVD is also quite entertaining, namely "Jungle Heat" with Al St John, who is probably best remembered as Roscoe `Fatty' Arbuckle's skinny sidekick in earlier slapstick comedies. This 1927 short is more sophisticated than those earlier ones, and has a few very good and unexpected scenes and effects, particularly with animals. While not presenting anything too special or outstanding, all up this DVD is still nice and enjoyable viewing for the silent film fan, and no doubt a treat for Adolphe Menjou fans as well.